21 Chapter 21: A new tale

This time, Shirazad was brought to the king's quarters instead of returning to her chamber. When she entered, his back was turned to her. He was looking through the window, though it was already dusk. Shirazad was less confident than before. Having just come out of the dungeon with no explanation whatsoever why... she wondered if he had freed her; she wondered if the truth had been revealed. But she decided to start anew; anyway, since he invited her here, then it was probably really just because he wanted to hear a story.

He just glanced at her, "I am listening." He said.

"Today," she said without smiling, "I'd like to start a new tale."

"And who is the main character this time?" He finally turned around to look at her and invited her with a gesture to sit. "A fair maiden? A prince?"

"A unicorn," she said. "This time the main character is not a person." She looked at the flames dancing in the fireplace. "But it wasn't a white unicorn. It was a black unicorn... like charcoal."

"He lived in the beautiful Unicorn Kingdom, didn't he?" the king jested.

"The kingdom where he lived... it was indeed a very beautiful kingdom. But the people were unhappy, discontented... They thought only about themselves, and it was a place full of strife..."

~~And one night when the moon shone above the woods with its eerie and mysterious radiance, the bushes trembled and a dark figure appeared. A black unicorn. They said that unicorns' souls were as pure as their soft white color. The unicorn looked up. His tears mingled with the drops of warm summer rain. Suddenly, he collapsed. A shadow rose up from his body like mist... then it went up in flames.~~

"He died. Is that the end of the story?"

"But, My Lord, unicorns are of course immortal. So he didn't die. His soul turned into flames, but its flame lived on. And people began to use it. They did not understand that the energy given to unicorns belonged to them and them only. But our story actually happens many years after that..."

The king put his legs up on the bed, he caught her chin and said, "Forget about the unicorn kingdom, why don't you tell me about the kingdom of the beautiful maidens?"

Suspiciously obedient, Shirazad answered,

"That was exactly what I was going to tell you about." As much as he wanted to keep his hand there right under her chin, the promise of a kingdom of maidens sounded enticing, so he let her speak again.

"Now, there was a forest where endless meadows of bright yellow sunflowers, outshining the sun itself, merged with red swarms of scarlet poppies. Wood-nymphs danced in the meadows day and night. The wood-nymphs were all heavenly beautiful maidens. When they fell asleep, butterflies would alight on them because they mistook them for flowers. They danced so quickly and gracefully..."

Meanwhile, Shahryar came behind her on the bed, put his hand on her neck and stroked her, perhaps thinking that since she was talking about a kingdom of beautiful maidens, she was finally starting to get his vibes. She continued,

"Naturally, all men were enchanted by them. But as much as it pains me, Your Majesty, I will have to disappoint you. They never got married. None of them."

Suddenly she felt that he was squeezing her tightly, his hand resting on her lap.

"Why do you think this would disappoint me?" he laughed. "They aren't married, but you are."

"In this kingdom," she continued resolutely, "there lived a very powerful mage... He had a pet falcon."

Finally, the king asked with genuine interest - for he also had a pet falcon - and seemed to give up on his quest of making the story more erotic than Shirazad would have appreciated,

"Was he the ruler of the land?"

"No. But people addressed him as "Your Highness" and called him 'raven prince' because..."

Suddenly, Shirazad felt how the king used the weight of his body to push her on the bed and he lay above her. This had a stupefying effect on her as she was just exploring the beginning of this story, spontaneously absorbed by it, and did not expect this. So now she was speechless.

"Shirazad," the king said, "please ignore me and continue on with the story. I will just be giving you some ideas." And he started kissing her on the cheek and neck.

"There is... there will be time for that, Your Majesty. They say timing is everything."

~~Could you please be so kind as to save your ideas for when I am out of my own?~~ she thought.

He stopped kissing her and stared a long stare at her face. Suddenly, he seemed to decide he was acting inappropriately. He stood up.

"Yes, Shirazad, they say timing is important, but I've been attending court affairs and I am very tired today, so let's go to bed," he stated in a matter-of-fact voice. Then he went to the fireplace and put out the fire.

"Your Majesty... It is winter," she said. "Why do you put off the fire?..." It would be so very cold at night.

"I will be here. If you are cold."

If? If she were cold? How could she not be cold?! With that said, he went back into the bed.

Did he like the story? He'd interrupted her so suddenly. Ah, so sad, because she enjoyed the story and he did not seem to care. Early in the morning, he woke her up.

"What happened to him?" he said, "This raven prince."

She opened her eyes sleepily in the gray of the morning. She wondered if she'd heard correctly. It was the first time he showed interest in any of her tales, so she answered,

"...The mage? Of course, he went to the forest of the wood-nymphs," she said and it was difficult for her to hide her satisfaction that he'd finally asked her a question. "But it is a long story, Your Majesty..."

Still, he acted as if he wanted to hear a bit more...

"In this forest, there lived a maiden... Her eyes were emerald green and her hair red like fire. And only one item adorned her hair – an almost invisible magical veil, which they called a wood-nymph veil. You must have heard that whatever magical powers wood-nymphs had, all of them were in their magical attire; and of their clothes the most powerful was the veil. So, you would think she was a wood-nymph... But she wasn't. She..., regardless of her real identity, you must know she was also a criminal."

He rolled his eyes, "So what, did he catch her red-handed?"

"Not at all. At that point, he didn't even know about her existence. The mage also had an acquaintance who was very polite and very different from him. The kind of person who often spoke in high-pitched tone. You know, they say people speak like that on two occasions: either they want to present themselves as weaker and submissive, or when they're lying."

"...Do you believe that?"

"I don't know. Do you think it's true?"

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. And maids came in the chamber to bring breakfast because it was already late morning, but Shirazad hardly noticed. Shahryar thought he'd just listen until that mage met the maiden-criminal from the forest.

But the story went on and on, the maiden was caught and freed and caught again, the mages were vengeful and working against each other... ...

"They are not going to meet each other soon, are they?" Shahryar frowned.

"I am not sure," Shirazad said.

...And so, she kept telling more and more details. Suddenly, she noticed that the king was standing still in front of the bed, and had turned his gaze toward the window.

It wasn't dusk... it was dark...

...The sun had set not long ago, and Shirazad had been telling the story all day... She shivered. From the sharp sparkle in the king's eyes, she could assume he was thinking about this too. Then he gave her a long stare. What happened to her claim that "fairy-tales cannot be told during the day"? She was speechless.

"What makes this day different from others?" he said.